Republican mobs?

[irishbobcat]

Donna Brazile: Rx for reform means dialogue, not disruption
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By Donna Brazile
Newspaper Enterprise Association
Posted Aug 09, 2009 @ 12:19 AM

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One of the greatest worries congressional staffers face when organizing a town-hall meeting for their boss is that no one will attend it. Now they really have something to fear: organized gangs of partisan hecklers intent on stopping a national dialogue on health reform.

From spending thousands of dollars of government-paid "franked mail" to every constituent in a member's district to blasting out faxes to the local media, assembling experts to answer difficult questions and posting reminders through Facebook and Twitter, encouraging citizens to attend these informative events takes time and money. So why are some folks hellbent on shutting them down? My answer: Republicans want to stifle debate and kill any attempt to reform health care during this session of Congress.

In a July 31 memo to House Republicans titled "A Very Hot Summer," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, promised that "Our Democratic friends are going to feel the heat in August from the American people as a consequence of the massively flawed health care bill, and rightly so. ... Our work is far from over. ... Our mission now is to keep it going."

Three days later, Boehner posted a "Leader Alert" on his official Web site that crowed about Democratic congressmen being harassed and heckled during town hall meetings with their constituents. Boehner seemed particularly pleased with the Austin American Statesman account of the "angry reception" Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, faced from a group that "overwhelmed the congressman as he moved through the crowd and into the parking lot."

Meanwhile, FreedomWorks, chaired by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is e-mailing 380,000 supporters with a link to an "August Recess Action Kit" and the call to arms: "Turn Up the Heat in August: Help Defeat ObamaCare."

Reforming our nation's health care system is too important and complex a topic for us to allow partisan agitators to be so disruptive. It's a shame because no matter where you stand on the various proposals, this summer is a time to review and discuss the legislation that Congress will consider upon their return in the fall.

As Richard Nixon once noted, "We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another — until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices."

Yes, of course hecklers are welcome to attend town hall meetings, but no member of Congress deserves to be heckled and harassed to the point of fearing personal harm. What is happening at the town hall meetings is frightening.

Have we abandoned all hope of bipartisanship? Do we really want our elected officials to demonize their opposition?

And are Republicans that desperate because it appears as if the economy is improving and President Obama might just get the credit after they fought him tooth and nail?

These so-called hecklers should be encouraged to attend, rather than shut down, town hall meetings, if only to listen to fellow Americans who are fearful of losing their current health care or worried that their premiums will rise so much that they can't afford any health care at all.

Instead, these disruptive elements scream with one eye searching for the nearest TV camera. They seek confrontation that will distract from any meaningful dialogue between our elected leaders and their constituents.

What we need is a respectful, civilized debate. What we have are agitators who hung in effigy a likeness of Reps. Frank Kratovil Jr. of Maryland and Allen Boyd of Florida outside their district offices.

Rep. Pete Sessions, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, went so far as to tell Politico that the time for polite town halls is now "over."

Republicans leaders should be held accountable for encouraging and promoting these disruptions.

We need a vigorous national debate, not intimidation, coercion and sowing seeds of discontent. This is all part of a well-orchestrated political campaign paid for by opponents of health care reform. They want the status quo, in new threads.

We are all dead in the water with the current broken health care system. The president's willingness to change the August deadline shows his commitment to "getting it right." It's a delay, not an end. The American people will have their reform. We all want better health care, and better health care we should demand.

Courage is what we all need now — courage to risk change after our best plans are put forward and debated.



Donna Brazile is a political commentator on CNN, ABC and NPR; contributing columnist to Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill; and former campaign manager for Al Gore.

[irishbobcat]

By Henry Fernandez | August 7, 2009

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Progressives around the country are pointing with concern to the antics of conservative activists over the course of the last few weeks. Left-leaning blogs such as DailyKos and ThinkProgress are afire with examples of conservatives acting badly:

The hanging of Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) in effigy at a rally
Groups of conservative activists disrupting town hall meetings
Leaders in the conservative movement calling now Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor an affirmative action hire and a member of the Latino KKK
CNN talking head Lou Dobbs legitimizing fringe characters' racist conspiracy nonsense about President Barack Obama being born in Kenya
Fox News's Glenn Beck calling on patriots to take back America while saying that President Obama hates white people
Progressives deride these awful, frequently dangerous, and racist behaviors, and they then rightly call on conservative leadership to distance itself from these activities. Let me suggest though that if we wait for conservative leaders to show concern about the threat to civility and public safety in this new wave of "activism," then progressives might as well surrender on climate change, health care reform, immigration, and just about everything else we stand for.

For many progressives, this same type of angry, scary conservative activism was first on full display less than a year ago at the presidential rallies of Sen. John McCain (D-AZ) and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, when activists at their rallies shouted "terrorist," and "kill him" about Barack Obama. But for those of us who work on immigration reform, we had seen this type of extreme right political theater well before then.

The strategies used by the "tea-party" clique, screamers in town halls, as well as conservative talk radio and television personalities were perfected in fighting progressive immigration reform. So here are some lessons that we have learned that hopefully will help our progressive allies in the health care reform, climate change, and energy debates as they go up against protesters organized and directed by a clutch of extreme right-wing groups in Washington, D.C.

These forces are organized and driven from above
While it is important strategically that anti-immigrant and now anti-health care forces appear to be simple manifestations of spontaneous disgust with progressive legislation, that is simply not the case. There are a small number of Washington-based organizations that provide strategy, funding, and talking points to "grassroots" groups.

In the case of the anti-immigrant cause, FAIR, NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies, provide legal support and regional organizers to foster local groups, give them talking points and organizing strategies, as well as furnish them with easy-to-use online tools to get in touch with their members of Congress. In the anti-health reform arena, well-funded groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives for Patients Rights, and FreedomWorks play the same role. Other groups, among them Grassfire.org, are happy to switch between immigration, health care, and climate change to mobilize mostly manufactured conservative rage wherever they can find it.

The lesson: All strategies involving pushing back against these astro-turf forces should include addressing the national organizations, not just their local tentacles. Research how they are funded, what their ultimate goals are and what means they use to engage local activists. Then build the capacity to address them accordingly.

At the same time, it is important to ensure that local media treat the local manifestations of these groups as what they are; part of a conservative national strategy. These abusive hecklers are not local, suddenly angry people who otherwise might vote for a progressive.

On the immigration front, we learned that these organizations built large lists of issue-specific activists, boast sizable online organizing capacity, and direct specific field operations. With this information in hand, we are able to specifically organize responses to what they do and understand they are our primary nemesis, not some amorphous and spontaneous "will of the people."

There are often strong ties to overtly racist groups
The leading anti-immigrant organization NumbersUSA often speaks about how it opposes racism. Yet if you go the neo-Nazi website Vinlanders.com, right near the top of the page is a button linking you to NumbersUSA. And NumbersUSA consistently buys ads with known hate groups denouncing immigration reform. You will find the same thing around those highly organized tea parties. Posters on the white nationalist Stormfront.org website regularly encourage others to come out to tea party activities.

Indeed, the Anti-Defamation League reports that at some "tea parties," white nationalists described being well received by conservative activists when passing out hateful literature while elsewhere they were not. The heavy involvement of social misfits, racists, and thugs does not happen by coincidence. It is instead an organizing strategy.

The Washington-based conservative organizations' goal? To get people who are willing to come out for the cause no matter how destructive their behaviors or wrong their worldview. Whatever the foot soldiers believe and however they behave is okay as long as they are willing to show up in numbers and yell out carefully scripted talking points.

That's why NumbersUSA chief executive Roy Beck and the leaders of other large Washington-based anti-immigration groups have spoken at meetings of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a virulently racist organization that calls black people a lower species of life. Similarly, conservative leaders are continually unwilling to denounce the behavior of the bizarre Orly Taitz, who is behind much of the patently racist "birther" movement. Denunciation would carry with it the loss of placard carrying, TV-ready angry citizens, much in demand by conservative leadership.

The lesson: Do not let these connections go unnoticed. Call conservative groups on their willingness to engage with racists. Do so publicly and with the press. Make it much harder for mainstream conservatives and elected officials to rely on racist organizations to move their messages or provide foot soldiers for their campaigns.

This is not the same as saying that everyone who opposes President Obama is a racist or that everyone who is concerned about securing our border is a bigot. Lots of decent people disagree fundamentally with many of the president's policy positions, including on immigration, energy, and health care reform. But groups with clear antipathy toward other people because of their race should not be the army on which any legitimate group moves its political agenda.

Progressives will get pushback when they take these steps. Conservatives will say it's not fair to call someone a racist. They will also argue about the need for all ideas to be discussed openly, no matter how ugly. But the immigration fight has shown that unless we tackle these connections to racist groups directly, repeatedly, and with clear defensible facts, then these bigots will continue, and increasingly offensive ideas will get treated as acceptable points of debate in the mainstream media. Equally important, mainstream conservatives will be able to use despicable people to disrupt public discourse while disavowing any knowledge of their actions or ugly beliefs.

They don't want to have a debate, they want to shout you down
In the immigration fight, there are several basic issues that conservative and progressive supporters of comprehensive immigration reform can debate. For instance, how many people should be let into the country every year to engage in farm work and what labor organizing rights they should have are not universally agreed upon by people who want to pass a reform bill. So, in the normal course of legislation, a compromise would be reached that would not fully satisfy either side, but would suffice to get enough votes for passage.

But for true anti-immigrant groups, the only acceptable answer to how many new immigrants should be allowed in next year is zero. So their goal is to ensure that there is no chance for a compromise, no chance that conservatives and progressives sit down and find a number that is tolerable to both. Any such number would be millions more people than zero.

To address this conundrum, anti-immigrant activists have long used the tools of disruption. They harass their opponents in public settings, attack legislators looking for a solution as "traitors," and try to shut down any rational discussion. And now of course, we see these same tactics playing out at health care town halls this summer. As we now know, organized conservative activists have been given instructions to:

"Pack the hall...spread out" to make their numbers seem more significant, and to "rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation...To yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early.... To rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda...Stand up and shout and sit right back down."

Their only objective is to disrupt members of the House and Senate so that he or she cannot get into an honest dialogue with people who just came to the town hall to actually learn something. Honest dialogue is their enemy because facts are not in their favor.

The lesson: You have to know these tactics are going to happen and prepare for them. This means that every public event with an elected ally or potential ally requires a strong presence from supporters of health care reform or immigration or whatever progressive issue is under attack this week. Immigration advocates set up email lists to alert supporters whenever their voice is needed in a public meeting or even just to add their words to the comments following a news story online. Increasingly, progressive local blogs have started playing this role in the health care debate. The result: progressives have sometimes outnumbered "tea baggers" in some recent town halls.

Whether it's a member of Congress' town hall on health care, or a city council meeting discussing the need for progressive local immigration policies, progressives should from this point forward expect that a disorderly fringe has been fully embraced by conservative organizations and leadership. It is important to put systems in place to organize to get people out to these meetings, explain to the press who the opposition really is and how they got there, and be sure that the people organizing the event are aware of the possibility of disruption and have set ground rules to minimize it.

Lou Dobbs promotes conspiracy theories and CNN doesn't care
Long before Lou Dobbs began sharing the lie that Obama was not born in Hawaii, he had other whoppers that did not stand up to even the slightest fact checking. This includes his trumpeting the conspiracy theory popular among skinhead and Minuteman types that Mexican-American U.S. citizens who have lived in this country for generations are engaged in a plot to return the southwest to Mexico. As bizarre as that one is, Dobbs is probably best known for another outright fabrication.

Dobbs used the lies of Madeleine Cosman to report that Latino immigrants were responsible for 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the United States a year. The recently deceased Kosman was a serial liar and anti-immigrant propagandist who had no expertise in leprosy or public health for that matter. The New York Times looked into Dobb's reporting and found that the federal registry for Hansen's disease (leprosy) had only 7,000 cases of leprosy in the last 30 years in our country. Dobbs refused to acknowledge this error, leading The New York Times to report that "Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality."

Just like with the "birther" controversy, CNN leadership fell back on Dobbs right to say what he wants on the "most trusted name in news." The network and its owners took no action to stop Dobbs from sharing repeated conspiratorial lies with his viewers.

The lesson: The Southern Poverty Law Center's letter to CNN to remove Dobbs and MoveOn's petition condemning Dobbs' promotion of "outlandish conspiracy theories" are right on target. Progressives should join this cause, exposing Dobbs to ridicule and consistently shaming CNN for its willingness to associate the CNN brand with racist conspiracy theories. Otherwise, Dobbs will continue to spread lies to undermine progressive goals in virtually every area from climate change to health care to immigration. And CNN will continue to look the other way.

Expect violence to occur and no one to take responsibility
Glenn Beck rants every night on Fox News about traitors, patriots, and the need to retake the United States. He calls Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people" and says the president wants to take away your guns; all while encouraging his viewers to be the "defender of liberty." The racist Pittsburgh cop killer Richard Poplawski and the alleged Holocaust Museum security guard murderer James W. von Brunn, both parroted in their writings their distaste for the new black president and their unfounded belief in his desire to take away their guns. When the connection to Beck's rhetoric is drawn, Beck claims he has no responsibility. Actually he compares himself to a "flight attendant," just warning Americans about the coming "worst case scenario."

Where have we seen this all before? How about when long-time Minuteman personality Shawna Forde conducted a home invasion that led to the murder of the 9-year-old Mexican-American girl Brisenia Flores and her father two months ago. Suddenly, the national anti-immigrant movement and the full range of Minuteman groups got simultaneous amnesia discounting both her role in their efforts and their personal relationships.

Not so different from County Executive Steve Levy in Suffolk County, New York, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric has poisoned his community for years. But when teenagers in Suffolk allegedly beat and stabbed to death Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero, Levy said that if the crime had happened elsewhere: "It would be a one-day story...You wouldn't have all of the side stories trying to link motive to county policy." Driving home this obvious moral sleight of hand, he added: "There are hate crimes in other areas that don't get one scintilla of the same kind of coverage in Suffolk County."

The conservative tactics at the health care town halls have now crossed the line to include violent behavior. At a town hall meeting in Tampa Bay, Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) faced conservative protestors banging on windows, trying to force their way into an already-filled hall, and engaging in a fistfight inside the meeting. This is not surprising. The combination of language used by Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservative leaders, along with the very nature of who some of the activists are, almost guarantees that violence will eventually occur.

Indeed, many of the Tampa Bay conservative activists said they came because of notices posted on the website of Tampa912.org, an offshoot of Beck's 912 Project. Expect that if and when this violence escalates, Minuteman amnesia will strike conservative leadership.

The lesson: The potential for violence is now a very real component of conservative organizing. For most conservatives, violence is as equally reprehensible as it is for most progressives. But the mixture of combustible rhetoric espoused by recognized conservatives on radio and television with the willingness of Washington-based conservative groups to incorporate truly reprehensible thugs in their local organizing due to the need for activist foot soldiers ensures that a line will be crossed, and crossed repeatedly.

There is no easy solution to confronting violence in our democracy. Many civil rights organizations working on immigration have implemented security plans to protect their employees. Similarly, members of Congress and progressive organizations will have to evaluate whether they can maintain safety at their public events. Issues of security including where people can sit, how many people can fill a hall, and determining whether the police attend certain gatherings are all part of planning for immigration meetings in the modern era.

Unfortunately this kind of planning must now also go into talking to constituents about whether their government will help them get affordable health care.

Henry Fernandez is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. To read more of his columns and the Center's policy positions and recommendations on immigration and health care please go to the Domestic page of our website.

[Rick Rowlands]

The left has always been for civil liberties as long as they agree with the left.  They have no tolerance for dissenting opinions.  Just look at the vile that is spewed by some on this board, making personal attacks and all instead of arguing facts.

[sfc_oliver]

The only teabaggers are sick sexual deviants, I suppose a lot of the left knows all about that. There is a movement known as
T E A Parties.

I have no Idea why when someone stands against the left that they are suddenly directed and controlled by the right. I myself am a fairly educated and intelligent individual who can decide for himself what I believe to be true or false. And this administration is becoming more false on a weekly basis.

Now if you actually do some real research you will find out that a very small percentage of our Citizens actually do not have or do not qualify for some type of health insurance.

The number of uninsured continues to climb, reaching 46.1 million nonelderly people in 2005 .  In a recent paper published by Health Affairs, Dubay, Holahan and Cook estimated that approximately 80 percent of the uninsured are currently eligible for public health insurance coverage or live in families with income below 300% of the federal poverty level (FPL).
http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7613.pdf


DO the research and the math we might be talking about destroying a system that covers 95% of us. Why not just fix it to cover the other 5%.

Medicare is not socialist as you the recipient pay into it your entire life. It is therefore an insurance for most. And not a very good one. And you still pay into it once you are enrolled in it. Fact is when I went on Medicare it cost me more than the Military insurance TRICARE. I see nothing free or socialist about it.

[Oldmill]

What a load of Bull. These are Americans who have had enough midnight deals and back room Chicago politics and have simply had enough from the democrat congress force feeding their projects down their throats. But that's alright they will wake up when the elections come again. The people are speaking too bad the DNC doesn't care.

I have to agree, people that think for themselves  have had enough . the days of reckoning are coming to this country. Sooner than you think. I never thought it would happen in this country but the signs are pointing to civil unrest. Yes, put me on you list "Give me liberty or give me death"

[irishbobcat]

The Teabaggers aren't interested in having a civil discussion on health care reform. Instead they are directing their followers to act as mindless thugs. 

Here is the directive from the local Tea Party leadership to their email list:

* Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: "Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington."

* Be Disruptive Early And Often: "You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early."

* Try To "Rattle Him," Not Have An Intelligent Debate: "The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."

These tactics are clearly meant to stifle any real discussion and to rob people of their opportunity to hear what Driehaus has to say and ask him tough questions about his position. If the Teabaggers really have something thoughtful to say on the issue then why are they scared of having an open and honest debate? Instead of using logic and reason they are pushing emotional responses of fear and anger.

And one must wonder where these "fiscal conservatives" were during the past 8 years while the Bush administration shredded the constitution and ran up record deficits. I don't remember seeing any rallies from them then. (Bush led the bipartisan trillion dollar bailout for the crooks on Wall Street.)


It seems clear from watching the coverage of these protests across the country that these Teabaggers seem to be from one demographic, older angry white people. They are overwhelmingly Republicans though many of them now call themselves Libertarians or Independents after the Republican Party discredited itself over the past 8 years.

The for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries have had seats at the table from the start of the discussions on health reform. As President Obama said everything is on the table (except for single payer health care). So why do these activists feel the need to stifle the discussion? Why are they so scared of a real debate?

It turns out these "Astroturf" protests are really being orchestrated by Republican organizations and corporate lobbyists. These groups use fear tactics and lies to scare the American people.

They want people to believe that socialized medicine is going to kill elderly people, but socialized medicine isn't even being discussed (and other nations have proven socialized medicine works better than our Pay or Die system). Even a single payer system like Medicare-for-all (which isn't socialized medicine because there is private delivery) isn't being discussed by the Democrats.

I wonder how many of these older white people are currently on or will be on Medicare-a government run ("socialist") health insurance program for the elderly.

[Towntalk]

It was true then and its true now!

[Towntalk]

 August 5

ERICA HILL, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: President Obama toughening his message on health care reform today; saying he is determined to get an overhaul of the health care system by year's end with or without bipartisan support.

Meantime, check out a new national poll showing how Americans feel. They're weighing in now. As you can see, when they talk about the president's plan, nearly split; 50 percent in favor of it, 45 percent opposed. And something else to consider -- that poll found those opposed to Obama's plan, Mr. Obama's plan, are actually more likely than supporters to show up at Town Hall meetings being held by lawmakers around the country. Some of those meetings have actually turned into out-right verbal brawls.

And many Democrats are charging that outrage is in fact, an act being orchestrated by Republicans. But is that charge fair?

Joe Johns is "Keeping them Honest."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEOPLE: Just say no. Just say no. Just say no.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The YouTube videos keep coming. Town hall meetings on health care, held by Congressional Democrats, dissolving into rowdy shouting sessions; and now this, a memo from an organizer in Connecticut spelling-out instructions on, quote, "Rocking the Town Halls with noisy opposition."

It's not rocket science. The memo says, "Protestors should pack the hall with as many fellow activists as possible to challenge the member of Congress."

And they're sure doing that. At this Green Bay, Wisconsin, event Tuesday, held by Congressman Steve Kagen, people who couldn't squeeze in were demanding it be moved outside to the parking lot.

PEOPLE: Move it outside. Move it outside.

JOHNS: The memo also says, "The team should spread out inside the hall but should try to get seats in the front half so they'll get called on to speak. Protestors should watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the representative's statements early."

But it says, "Don't carry on and make a scene -- just short intermittent shutouts. The purpose is to make him uneasy early on."

JOHNS: You get the picture. But the Democratic National Committee is complaining that what looks like outrage is canned political theater manufactured by special interests to kill health care reform.

HARI SEVUGAN, DEMORACTIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It's these angry mobs organized and incited by Republicans and their K Street allies here in Washington, D.C. to derail the president.

JOHNS: CNN was not able to confirm or refute the charge that special interests were paying for the protests. But an organizer with the conservative group accused of fueling the protests says this.

BRENDAN STEINHAUSER, GRASSROOTS DIRECTOR, FREEDOM WORKS: I would say that clearly these people are doing it on their own. They're not being paid to do this by anybody.

JOHNS (on-camera): The group says protestors pay their own way and says it never even saw the memo until it showed up on a liberal Web site. Some say nefarious, some say it's just politics in America.

Joe Johns, CNN, New York.

_  _  _  _


CNN Newsroom

August 7

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, you know something, Betty, clearly there's a divide when it comes to health care reform. CNN's latest poll, the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll, shows that Americans think that President Obama's approach to health care right now, he only receives a C minus. You know, as more and more details came out about the health care bill, people seemed to get angrier and angrier.

Now, we do see these very violent images on television, we have seen them for the past week right now. But we should note that it's not just conservatives or Republicans who are at these health care rallies, it's also Democrats or liberals who are really advocating and talking about the issue and getting loud about it. It just seems that so far, the conservatives have been the loudest.

_  _  _  _

PRESTON: Yes, absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with that.

You know, the question really is, is it orchestrated, is it organic, is it real? And both sides do this.

Before Democrats left here in Washington, before they went back to their districts, they were giving talking points. Before Republicans left, they were giving talking points.

Now, the rub is, when outside groups distribute talking points to constituents and instruct them how to act at these meetings, that's where, really, the big rub is on this. So, again, it's a very delicate situation, Betty, because, you know, Democrats and Republicans both have a lot to lose because of this. You know, and let me just tell you, very quickly, for Democrats to call people mobs and inciting mobs...

NGUYEN: That's strong language.

PRESTON: Strong, and it's very dangerous, because these people are voters. But, again, as we saw from some of those images that you've just shown, to have images of Nazis and to have very strong language and violence, doesn't help the Republican Party.

[sfc_oliver]

What a load of Bull. These are Americans who have had enough midnight deals and back room Chicago politics and have simply had enough from the democrat congress force feeding their projects down their throats. But that's alright they will wake up when the elections come again. The people are speaking too bad the DNC doesn't care.

[Towntalk]

The Media

The AP has a nice wrap of the back-and-forth between Republicans and the White House over the activists who have showed for many congressional town halls. "Conservative activists are vowing to keep up their fight against President Barack Obama's health care plans, even as the Democratic Party pushes back hard, accusing Republicans of organizing angry mobs... 'To sit back and say that this is some Republican cabal is a bunch of baloney,' Steele said."

DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse issued a statement about "the Republican Party and Allied Groups' Mob Rule," saying that the "Republicans and their allied groups -- desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill -- are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country."
To wit: Woodhouse said that "much like we saw at the McCain-Palin rallies last year where crowds were baited with cries of 'socialist,' 'communist,' and where the birthers movement was born -- these mobs of extremists are not interested in having a thoughtful discussion about the issues -- but like some Republican leaders have said -- they are interested in 'breaking' the president and destroying his presidency."
Woodhouse continued: "These mobs are bussed in by well funded, highly organized groups run by Republican operatives and funded by the special interests who are desperately trying to stop the agenda for change the President was elected to bring to Washington.  Despite the headline grabbing nature of these angry mobs and their disruptions of events, they are not reflective of where the American people are on the issues -- or the hundreds of thousands of thoughtful discussions taking place around kitchen tables, water coolers and in homes."
There's been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform.
The truth is, it's a sham. These "grassroots protests" are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They're trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.
Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families -- we can't let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we're counting on you to help. Can you read these "5 facts about the anti-reform mobs," then pass them along to your friends and family?

FROM THE DNC

5 facts about the anti-reform mobs
1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the "Swiftboat" ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.
2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President's plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no "government takeover" in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.
3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the "SS" symbol to compare President Obama's policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting -- and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President's health insurance reform plans, they are trying to "break" the President himself and ruin his Presidency.
4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to "stand up and shout" and try to "rattle" lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.
5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."
It's time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page.
Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth.
Thanks,
Jen
Jen O'Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee